Leftist activists are so much more virtuous, radiate integrity, and are just plain better than you or me. At least, this third-year student, Alex Romero, at the Seattle University (SU) School of Law must be because he felt he needed to make a decision for all SU law school students. His fellow law students may no longer take advantage of externship programs offered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Reportedly, this is one of over 800 externships the SU Law School offers. I wonder which agency will be the next to fall to a leftist student bully.
In full disclosure and since experience matters: I worked at Seattle University for about two years before becoming a police officer. I served as a supervisor in the university’s public safety department. I enjoyed working there, liked the people, and consider it a good experience. Though the school leaned left while I was there, aside from a few bright spots that remain, the university seems to have toppled left since I worked there. SU had not yet acquired the law school during my tenure.
Anyway, Mr. Romero may be a nice guy, may be great to sit and have a cup of coffee with, and he’s probably sincere. So, none of this is personal. But I shouldn’t give a future immigration lawyer too much credit. After all, he didn’t get the ICE externship nixed on his own. No, as is so common on leftist college campuses these days, the administration tucked away their intellectual integrity and joined Mr. Romero by validating his condescending, virtue-intimidation tactics.
You see, Mr. Romero believes the university owes it to him to interpret the university’s mission statement, as it relates to political matters, as he sees them. If the administration doesn’t agree, and fails to do as he says, then they are not good people, and he says he never should have deigned to grace the campus with his august personage.
That another student may interpret ICE policies differently doesn’t seem to have occurred to Mr. Romero, or he doesn’t care. His words and actions show it’s probably the latter. Opposing opinions need not apply. As I’ve been pointing out, lately, the left doesn’t get to be wrong, and they don’t lose—ever. You don’t simply have a different opinion; you’re wrong!
The Seattle Times reported that Mr. Romero told the SU administration an ICE table with ICE representatives he saw at a law school externship fair “could be frightening for undocumented students.” Is it me, or is anyone else struck by the irony of illegal alien students attending an institution that teaches law? He also asserts having ICE on campus violates the Jesuit university’s stated mission. Good thing he told them. Apparently, the law school and administration had no idea until this noble student pointed it out.
Mr. Romero cites a phrase in the school’s mission statement: “empowering leaders for a just and humane world,” as where the university is abandoning their mission by partnering with ICE. Mr. Romero seems to have appointed himself the sole arbiter of what is just and humane. No one may dissent. The left has spoken—so let it be written, so let it be done!
Though SU, reportedly, along with other Jesuit universities, condemned the “Trump Administration’s family separation policy.” I guess it’s easier to ignore it was also an Obama administration policy. Then again, I was guilty of separating families, too. I arrested parents who had their child(ren) with them while they committed their crime. Jail’s not really a great place for innocent little kids. So, I’d make sure the parent went to jail and the child went to a relative or CPS.
That’s the way it works. Don’t want to be separated from your child(ren), don’t commit crimes while they’re with you. What kind of parents do that, anyway? Why isn’t that a valid question?
Well, Mr. Romero didn’t like that the SU administration didn’t promise to act as Saint Alex had decreed they should. So, he started a petition and collected some 468 signatures. What a virtue-signaling opportunity he provided his fellow students. Merry Christmas!
Impressed by this enterprising paragon of virtue-signaling student’s efforts, another paragon, this one of courage, SU Law School Dean Annette Clark suspended the ICE externship. She reported the decision in a school email, which the school newspaper, The Spectator, published. It read, “As educators, lawyers, and soon-to-be-lawyers, we hold particular power and bear a special responsibility to be peacemakers and to assist those who are suffering due to the unjust operation of our legal system, laws, and their enforcement.” They apparently get to determine for all what constitutes “suffering” and “unjust operations” of the legal system. No discussion, no debate, they’re right and others are wrong.
Weird. The dean doesn’t mention an obligation to be objective, provide the students with an unbiased education, which should include diverse positions and opinions, and to respect those on the various sides of an issue. Her decision shows no respect for those who support or are willing to consider ICE’s legitimate mission to protect our nation.
Think about this: the dean of a prestigious law school has determined that laws passed by the U.S. Congress and supported in good faith by those sworn to enforce them, along with millions of Americans are an “unjust operation of our legal system, laws, and their enforcement.” What hubris. She can hold this opinion if she wants to, but the tyranny of foisting personal political beliefs on all the students is shameful. With all her education, I’m to believe she cannot see the extreme, partisan political bias oozing from her decision?
Again, the left cannot be wrong, and they may never lose.
Tracy Short, who serves as ICE’s principal legal adviser, issued a statement in which she said, “It’s disheartening that an institution dedicated to teaching the laws of this country and whose core values include justice and diversity would prevent its students from gaining valuable professional experience in the fields of immigration and customs law.”
Short also pointed out that the university benefits from some federal funds. Institutions accepting federal funds shouldn’t be allowed to exclude a federal agency from inclusion in the university’s diversity of externship opportunities, should they? Perhaps, if they wish to show how dedicated they are to their position, SU should reject any federal funds. Yeah…that’s gonna happen.
In a telling statement, Mr. Romero revealed his inner motivation for bullying his fellow students into accepting his view of the world. Referring to SU’s duty to social justice, Romero said, “This is something that’s not just politics. It’s something that really hurts me personally. Seattle University needs to be made accountable to the promise it made during orientation, the promise that brought me to this school [emphasis mine].”
Well, as I once heard former Seattle Times columnist Michelle Malkin comment, boo-freaking-hoo about his personal feelings. Why should SU be held to this student’s ideological interpretation of the school’s and department’s various mission statements? In fact, why do political leftists get to be the exclusive judges of what comprises justice and humane behavior? Duh! I forgot, again. Because the left is never wrong, and they can never, ever, lose. Sorry, I won’t forget again.
Man, as much as the left cries for diversity, as they define it, they don’t like it when someone doesn’t believe as they do. I’d like to be around when Alex Romero, Esq. loses his first case. Future Judge (whoever) better watch out. How will the newly minted lawyer react the first time a judge or jury interprets justice differently from him?
Just in case, I’d recommend His or Her Honor have a janitor standing by with a squeegee, mop, and bucket ready to sop up the puddle of what had, only moments before, been an aspiring legal mind and, most regrettably for humankind, the repository of all that is just and humane in the world.
